PHYTOCHEMICALS AND ANTIOXIDATIVE PROPERTIES OF EDIBLE FERN, STENOCHLAENA PALUSTRIS (BURM. F.) BEDD NELSON CHEAR JENG YEOU UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA 2015 PHYTOCHEMICALS AND ANTIOXIDATIVE PROPERTIES OF EDIBLE FERN, STENOCHLAENA PALUSTRIS (BURM. F.) BEDD By NELSON CHEAR JENG YEOU Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science (Pharmacy) February 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Lai Choon Sheen for her continuous supervision and advices in helping me to complete the whole research project and thesis writing as well. I would like to thank her for being an open person to ideas, and for encouraging and supporting me to shape and strengthen my research interest and direction. Without her encouragement, guidance and all I have learned from her, I would never come to today achievement. My gratitude also goes to my co-supervisor, Dr. Vikneswaran Murugaiyah for his advices and helps throughout my research. In addition, I would like to express my thankfulness to Ministry of Higher Education and USM's Research Creativity and Management Office (RCMO) for providing the scholarship (My Brains 15- My Master) and research grant for the completion of this research project. Besides, I would like to express my gratitude to Centre for Drug Research, USM for giving me the chance to pursue my master degree and utilize the Centre’s instruments such as HPLC-UV and IR. My deepest appreciation goes to Mr. Zahari for helping me to perform NMR analysis in School of Chemical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia. I would like to thank Mr. Razak, Mr. Hilman, Mr. Rahim and Mr. Asokan for assisting and helping me to perform instrumental analysis such as HPLC-UV, IR, and GC-MS. Not forgotten to thank all other staffs that directly or indirectly help me throughout the whole research. Moreover, I would like express my thankfulness to my best friends, Khaw Kooi Yeong and Yeap Choon Wan and also my helpful colleagues, Juzaili, ii Yasodha, Sutha,, Halim, Hui Min, Jimmy, Gaik Ling and Kamilla for giving me a helping hand and moral supports whenever I faced with the experiment hardship. Nevertheless, I would like to express my feeling of appreciation and sincere gratefulness to my parents and siblings. Owing to their countless supports and encouragements mentally, physically and financially, I get the strength and courage to overcome the difficulties and obstacles that I have faced throughout my research project. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEGEMNT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES ix LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS xvi LIST OF PUBLICATIONS xx ABSTRAK xxi ABSTRACT xxiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Overview 1 3 1.2 Problem statement 4 1.3 Objectives CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5 2.1 Antioxidant as chemopreventive and therapeutic agent 5 2.1.1 Natural antioxidants 6 2.1.2 Synthetic antioxidants 9 iii 2.2 Fern and fern allies 11 2.2.1 Blechnaceae family 13 2.2.2 Genus of Stenochlaena 14 2.3 Fern as a source of food and traditional medicine 15 2.3.1 Fern as a source of natural antioxidants 20 2.3.1.1 Polyphenols from ferns 22 2.3.1.2 Polyphenols from Blechnaceae family 26 2.4 Stenochlaena palustris (Burm.f.) Bedd. 29 2.4.1 Botanical description and geographical distribution 29 2.4.2 Ethnopharmacological uses 32 2.4.3 Phytochemicals 32 2.4.4 Pharmacological activities 35 2.4.4.1 Antimicrobial 35 2.4.4.2 Antioxidant 36 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 38 3.1 Research materials 38 3.1.1 Chemicals 38 3.1.2 Equipment and Instrumentation 40 3.2 Plant materials 40 3.3 Experimental methods 41 3.3.1 Extraction of plant materials 41 3.3.2 Chromatography 42 iv 3.3.2.1 Partition of the MeOH extract 42 3.3.2.2 Fractionation of the EtOAc-soluble constituents 42 3.3.2.3 Isolation of compounds A - E from fraction E/F1 43 3.3.2.3 (a) Compound A 45 3.3.2.3 (b) Compound B 45 3.3.2.3 (c) Compound C 45 3.3.2.3 (d) Compound D 46 3.3.2.3 (e) Degradation products of compound D 46 3.3.2.3 (e) Compound E 47 3.3.2.4 Isolation of compound F from fraction E/F3 47 3.3.2.5 Isolation of compound G from fraction E/F4 48 3.3.3 Compound identification and structural elucidation 49 3.3.3.1 Acid hydrolysis 49 3.3.3.2 Mass spectrometry (MS) 50 3.3.3.3 Melting point analysis 50 3.3.3.4 Ultraviolet visible (UV-VIS) spectroscopy 50 3.3.3.5 Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) 51 3.3.3.6 Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) 52 3.3.4 In vitro antioxidant assays 52 3.3.4.1 DPPH free radical scavenging assay 52 3.3.4.2 Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) 52 3.3.4.3 Total phenolic content (TPC) 53 v 3.3.4.4 Total flavonoid content (TFC) 54 3.3.4.5 TLC bio-autography 54 3.3.4.6 Flavonoid detection by TLC 55 3.3.4.7 Statistical analysis 55 3.3.5 Bioassay-guided isolation scheme of S. palustris 56 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 57 4.1 Comparison of young and mature fronds 57 4.1.1 Total distribution of phytochemicals 57 4.1.2 In vitro antioxidant activities of the crude extracts 58 4.1.2.1 DPPH radical scavenging activity 58 4.1.2.2 Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) 60 4.1.2.3 Total polyphenol and flavonoid content 61 4.2 Bioactivity guided isolation of compounds from the MeOH extract of mature fronds 64 4.2.1 DPPH radical scavenging activity of the EtOAc-soluble and water-soluble portions of MeOH extract 64 4.2.2 Total polyphenol content of the EtOAc-soluble and water- soluble portions 65 4.2.3 Phytochemical composition of EtOAc-soluble and water- soluble portions 66 4.2.4 Fractionation of the active EtOAc-soluble portion 71 4.2.4.1 DPPH scavenging activity of fractions (F1 – F7) 72 vi 4.2.4.2 Total polyphenol content of fractions (F1 – F7) 73 4.2.4.3 Phytochemical composition of fractions (F1 – F7) by TLC 74 4.3 Isolation of bioactive flavonoids from the active fractions (F1 – F3) 75 4.4 Identification of the compounds A – E in fraction E/F1 76 4.4.1 Compound A 76 4.4.2 Compound B 91 4.4.3 Compound C 106 4.4.4 Compound D 111 4.4.5 Compound E 132 4.5 Identification of the compound F in fraction E/F3 146 4.6 Identification of the compound G in fraction E/F4 157 4.7 DPPH radical scavenging activity of the isolated compounds and their structure-activity relationships (SARs) 172 4.8 Phytochemical composition of young and mature fronds (MeOH extracts) by TLC 176 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 179 5.1 Future works 181 REFERENCES 182 vii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 2.1 Edible ferns commonly consumed worldwide 16 Table 2.2 Traditional medicinal ferns used worldwide 17 Table 2.3 Free radical scavenging activities of various fern species 21 compared to ascorbic acid or BHT Table 3.1 Solvent gradient used for fractionation of the EtOAc-soluble 43 constituents Table 3.2 Solvent gradient used for sub-fractionation of fraction E/F1 44 Table 4.1 The polyphenol and flavonoid content of the plant extracts at 63 two stages of maturity Table 4.2 The correlation between the total polyphenol and flavonoid 63 content of the MeOH extract of S. palustris young and mature fronds Table 4.3 1D and 2D NMR data of compound A 83 Table 4.4 1D and 2D NMR data of compound B 98 Table 4.5 1D and 2D NMR data of compound D 117 Table 4.6 1D and 2D NMR data of (E)-p-coumaric acid 126 Table 4.7 1D and 2D NMR data of (Z)-p-coumaric acid 127 Table 4.8 1D and 2D NMR data of compound E 137 Table 4.9 1D and 2D NMR data of compound F 150 Table 4.10 1D and 2D NMR data of compound G 163 Table 4.11 DPPH free radical scavenging activity of the compounds A – 173 G isolated from mature fronds of S. palustris viii
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